


Whirlwind

by coffee666



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Anne leading, Dancing, F/M, IM, Living, anne realizing feelings basically lol, gilbert is whipped from day uno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 03:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21130337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffee666/pseuds/coffee666
Summary: It was as if the spirit of adventure where whispering right in her ear.Anne reached out to grab Gilbert’s hand.---In full few of the entire class, the entire county fair, Anne chooses her own dance partner right in the middle of the routine.





	Whirlwind

**Author's Note:**

> lmao anyone else still LIVING from that whole episode? 
> 
> follow me on tumblr @frappuccinio

Anne remembered her first time at the county fair. It was like a perfect dream. Though nothing was mundane much to Anne— even everyday life in Avonlea ,the fair seemed to re-light all things that had grown stale over her first few months there in a new magic light.

The wonder back then was akin to her childhood imagination. Hung lanterns lit new passages in the vendor carts and bales of hay. New crevices for new adventure.

Then there was the hay ride. Even though it was Moody’s father’s wagon, it was easy to imagine it was a carriage carrying her and a battalion off to a foreign country for unknowing adventure.

Even at sixteen, Anne was not one to let something be mundane, but she couldn’t help now how she felt. Though the sun was sinking, it seemed the heat from the many bodies and stirred up dust was getting to her.

The music was starting to swell and her heart pounded as she noticed the adults grouping up for the dance. To her relief, there was enough of them that they made enough sets on their own.

“They’re going to make us do this.” Anne said with dead as she backed up to the barn wall where Diana had stood to hide.

“I know. We’re going to have to dance with boys, while everyone’s watching.” Diana’s eyes darted off for a moment and Anne followed her gaze, but only Jerry laid back on a bale of hay. He was watching the girls in Anne’s class grouped on the other side with an expression she couldn’t read.

Anne often assured Jerry he wasn’t missing much by not attending school, but she wondered now if he was sad he had only come to the fair to help Matthew with the animals and crops, and wouldn’t get to participate.

In that moment, Anne would gladly trade.

“I still don’t know why you’re complaining, Anne.” Josie pulled Jane by the hand around the back of a pillar and joined them. “You seemed to be a natural.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Anne groaned, face reddening as she recalled the night before.

In the days since Belle’s foal arrived, Anne spent most nights in the barn visiting. She wanted the baby to know her well, and she found babies didn’t judge as she babbled on.

Last night had been no exception, Anne had been launched well into the story of her and Cole visiting her orphanage.

“That woman was so vile!” Anne rose from where she’d been crouched on the ground. Her nightgown billowed out as she spun on the spot, her bare feet helping her twirl.

In that moment, he was there. Gilbert’s hands in hers as they danced. It really had been easy. It had been… fun. Anne found herself unable to stop smiling.

“They want us to dance at school.” Anne had told Belle and her foal. “So we can dance properly at the fair.”

She placed the lantern back on the hook to free her arms and for the first time, practiced the dance on her own. It was easy to image she was at school again, her classmates on either side. Gilbert across from her.

She hummed the simple notes as she held her arms out and bounced eight steps each way and then back. She faced him again. He smiled, she smiled.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her across. She felt her heart swoop down into her stomach as she reenacted it, flying across the dark barn and turning.

Belle whinnied and Anne laughed, imagining it was some sort applause in equine. It wasn’t until Matthew appeared in the doorway did Anne’s feet stop and her arms lower.

He gently reminded her she should be in bed, and Anne nodded before running past him and back towards the house, her bare feet and legs singing in summer warmth. She couldn’t help but pray Matthew wouldn’t say he saw anything.

Anne was snapped back to the present when Diana squeezed her hand. She looked up to see the song had ended. The adults clapped, praising the band that now included Moody. Anne was glad for him, that he found something to contribute despite his injury.

But Moody playing meant that Ruby wasn’t leaving the benches by the stage. And one less person meant smaller sets.

The music started up again and to her dismay, Rachel flocked towards them from the adult’s crowd. Anne considered making a run for it.

“What are you girls doing? Group up!” She said.

“Mrs. Lynde, I, um, think we’re too many people short.” Anne said. “Ruby said she wasn’t feeling well, and –“

“Nonsense!” Rachel swatted a hand. “Sebastian said he’d step in and take a place, and with that, we have plenty.”

“Wait, with Bash in, won’t we be a girl short, still?” Diana asked.

“Well, it’s not the end of the world if it’s uneven. Why, once I find where Muriel has run off to with my son, we should have more than enough!”

As Anne let Rachel drag her towards the center, she couldn’t help but think that maybe Miss Stacy was running _away _from Mrs. Lynde’s son, not somewhere with him.

She had avoided looking Gilbert’s way all day. Even when word spread that he and Bash had been selling jars of the most golden jars of honey Avonlea had ever seen.

But Rachel had darted over and reminded the boys to get into line, and now Anne was seeing Gilbert in his fair clothes. Most farmers just wore a nice flannel, and Gilbert was no exception. A deep red that was ironically familiar as he took place between Bash and Jane.

Bash caught her eye and grinned. Anne smiled back. One Bash’s other side, Diana took his hand. Anne knew she did so because most other girl’s wouldn’t, but Diana also seemed to be acting absentmindedly, as she kept looking over her shoulder at something Anne couldn’t see.

The music started up again and Anne felt her heart pound almost painfully. Her palms sweated in the hands of her classmates, and she thought she was going to puke as she took the steps to the right in clunky time.

She wasn’t the only one out of it, Bash did not know the dance at all and was trying to look at both Gilbert’s and Diana’s feet for guidance.

Gilbert whispered something to Bash, something like maybe encouragement that Anne couldn’t catch, before he looked back.

In that moment, Anne felt like the music was both swelling and fading in her ears as their eyes locked. She was back in the barn, dancing for the horses. She was in school, dancing with him.

When she’d first caught his eye at practice day, she swore she was just looking around to get her footing, but his look back had been encouraging, as if challenging her to something new.

And it was –something she’d never done before. But it was easy, in a way. She kept her eyes on him, and her feet seemed to find the moves on their own.

It was like that now. Like muscle memory, the dance she could do any time in her head. She watched his face, watched his smile of surprise that she wasn’t bumping anyone’s shoulders or stumbling the way some of the others did.

Away, that was next. If Anne followed the dance rules, she’d join her set again and turn to dance with the boy on her right. Just Paul. Boring Paul. Not as bad as Charlie, but it wasn’t…

Gilbert would join Bash, and while that was sort of funny to imagine, Anne couldn’t help but remember the way he pulled her to his side. Made her his partner. He was a natural.

But that was just practice. It was easy then, because no one knew what was going on in any sense. But all eyes were on them now. They were up and coming adults, and to break the rules would mean disrespect and chastising.

She kept her eyes on him over her shoulder as they all partnered up, Gilbert with the girl on his right and Diana with Bash. Anne barely noticed Paul take her hands, her feet moving on instinct, desperate to get back into set and face him again.

Closer. Anne’s heart was pounding so loud that she was sure all could hear it if the music weren’t louder. She let herself watch his face again. Intrigue, maybe?

Anne smiled to hide her nerves, to remind him of their practice. He mirrored it, but with an expression that Anne knew meant he wouldn’t do it this time. There were rules and expectations, and it wasn’t as if everyone was practically falling over like last time.

They wouldn’t be able to regroup if she left her side. Someone might try to fix the flow by stepping into to her place and mess things up further.

They were parting again in time to the music. His smile seemed to say sorry this time, but in that moment, she couldn’t leave it. It was as if the spirit of adventure where whispering right in her ear.

Anne reached out to grab Gilbert’s hand.

When he’d done the same to her that day, she let herself be pulled. She flew over by his side with ease, but it was also easy to imagine she didn’t have much force in her tiny body.

Gilbert was different. He was solid and not one to expect the unexpected. Anne might have had great trouble guiding him over, if not for the half-second smirk just before.

It only took him a second to catch on, but that second was enough to halt the flow just slightly. Her smile went to a look of delighted shock as he managed to twirl under her arm before joining her side.

Across the line, Bash had not yet joined hands with the girl who’d been on Gilbert’s other side, and not just because she hadn’t reached for his. The whole group noticed what they did, eyed Anne with open-mouthed shock.

But Anne only saw Gilbert. His eyes lit up and he grinned. She couldn’t stop from grinning back, her face alight.

The music looped again and someone to Anne’s far right started to motions. It was a messy start, some people going the circle hands-free. Anne barely noticed, as she and Gilbert never broke pace.

His hand was oddly familiar in hers, yet strange. Large and warm and she no longer worried over her own sweat. His smile widened and she couldn’t help but laugh, and then he was laughing.

“Shoulders!” Rachel’s voice was drowned out as she attempted to remind everyone where to go.

They turned to one another, both hands joined now. Her eyes never left his, laughter still breaking in. The world slowed as they danced their allotted turns together.

The sets were falling apart. People were failing to rejoin in time. Anne knew she should reach back for someone’s hand and fall in, but she couldn’t.

“No, Sebastian! The other way!”

No one was falling back in like they should. Jane and Josie joined hands and refused to break apart. Diana took pity on Bash and kept both her hands in his, keeping him moving.

So Anne and Gilbert did not part. When it came time to bounce eight steps, they did so, just with each other. Anne laughed, but that laughter faded as their hands broke apart, both still reaching as if they couldn’t stand that few beats before they joined, leading with their shoulders.

When the song finally ended, Anne and Gilbert had practically danced the whole thing together. Red-faced with giggles and exertion, the lack of music seemed to snap them back to reality.

Noise broke back into Anne’s silent world with a storm of voices from dissatisfied classmates. Someone excused someone else of stepping on their foot. The other half in the other set seemed to have done the whole dance without much of a missteps. Words of agreeing among each other that it wasn’t so bad.

Anne agreed as she and Gilbert stood, eyes locked, it wasn’t so bad at all.

“You messed up, Anne!” Josie called over as she stalked past. “You were supposed to leave Gilbert on the other side.”

“Whoops.” Anne chuckled, eyes still on him. “Guess I’m not such a natural after all.”

“That’s okay.” Gilbert seemed to be expertly ignoring every look Bash was now throwing him from across the barn. “We can keep practicing.”

Anne took hold of his hands again as the band started another song. Her heart felt so light. Her feet felt as if they never truly touched the floor. Even after a night of dancing, she knew she’d be in perfect shape for a walk home with someone.


End file.
